From Publishers Weekly Before the discovery of malaria's causes and treatments, the mosquito-borne illness was a killer that held sway over tropical countries and extended deadly tendrils into more northern climes. Born in Kenya, Rocco (literary editor at The Economist) was exposed to the disease at an early age. Four of the girls from her primary school class died of cerebral malaria before they turned 40, and she herself contracted the illness in her teens, a fact which may have spurred her desire to write this engaging history of malaria's most popular cure: quinine. Using anecdotes from her far-ranging research as a narrative hook, Rocco traces the history of quinine from its discovery in the 17th century by Jesuit missionaries in Peru to its use by expanding European colonial powers and its role in the development of modern anti-malaria pills. The priests learned of the bark of the cinchona tree, which was used by Andean natives to cure shivering, at a time when malaria, then known as Roman ague or marsh fever, was devastating southern Europe. The Jesuits eagerly began the distribution of the curative bark. It also helped European explorers and missionaries survive the disease as they entered new territories. Rocco's many descriptions of her travels and of her personal experiences with malaria keep her story interesting and immediate, and she stirs in enough science to explain the how malaria and its cure actually work, making this a good choice for fans of memoir and science history. 16-page b&w photo insert. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. Read more From Booklist *Starred Review* Like Mark Kurlansky's superb Cod (1997) and Salt (2001), Rocco's book is the history of a commodity--quinine--and commerce is the mainspring of its development. Europeans had suffered from malaria immemorially but found reliable relief only as a result of colonizing South America, where Spanish Jesuits heard of and were led to the cinchona tree; they prepared its bark as directed by the indigenes, took it to Rome, and persuaded at least some of the medical establishment of the time that the "Jesuit powder" was effective. Spain then cornered the quinine trade, and rival European powers strove by means mostly foul--smuggling cinchona seeds and seedlings--to subvert it, ultimately successfully. The science of malaria and quinine were worked out in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and the latest major part of quinine's story is about maintaining supplies under trying conditions in the places that now need it most: the often strife-torn tropical nations. Rocco unfolds this saga in terms of major figures and events, from malaria-threatened seventeenth-century papal elections to a contemporary quinine producer's decision to remain in the Congo and help its people. Her clear prose and personal investment--having grown up in Africa, she knows malaria and quinine all too personally--ensure that every episode of her narrative enthralls. Ray OlsonCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved Read more P.when('A').execute(function(A) { A.on('a:expander:toggle_description:toggle:collapse', function(data) { window.scroll(0, data.expander.$expander[0].offsetTop-100); }); }); Review “An absorbing and superbly researched history of malaria and its cure.” (Sunday Times (London))“Ms. Rocco tells her four-century saga briskly, with a confident blend of scholarship and memoir.” (Wall Street Journal)“Lively, elegantly written and often fascinating” (Evening Standard (London))“Snappy and sharp...it’s almost a crime that so heinous a disease should be treated to so grand a biography.” (Kirkus Reviews)“An engrossing story...written with immense verve and confidence...crisp and fluent...a gripping and highly readable tale.” (New York Times Book Review) Read more About the Author Fiammetta Rocco was raised in Kenya. Her grandfather, her father and she herself all suffered from malaria. Ms. Rocco's investigative journalism has won a number of awards in the United States and in Britain. She lives in London, where she is the literary editor of the Economist. This is her first book. Read more See more
M**T
Informative and Entertaining
I found this book to be very informative and a pleasure to read. It recounts the story of malaria and quinine in an entertaining manner. It is very antithesis of a dry science-history that imparts the necessary information but in the process bores the reader to death. The author has personal experience with malaria and weaves this into the story, giving it a more human dimension. This is not to say that the book is about her and her family, although this is discussed. The book recounts the history of malaria, its impact on history in general, the search for a cure, and how this cure was implemented. It tells how the bark of a plant located thousands of miles away from the centers of malaria contagion was found to be a cure and how this was brought to the attention of the whole world. The reader learns how Jesuits brought the bark of the miraculous fever tree to Rome, how the value of the drug produced from it was debated, denigrated and finally accepted. The book also recounts the economic aspects of the story, from the attempt to prevent trees being grown outside their natural habitat, thereby marinating a lucrative monopoly, to the planting of forests in Asia and Africa, to the development of chemically produced alternatives and their impact on these forests. The book also discuses the important military aspects of this story, from its impact on the Napoleonic Wars, the American Civil War to WWI and WWII. The complex life cycle of the malaria parasite is discussed, as is the story of how this very complex riddle was solved.This may not be the definitive book on malaria and quinine, but in my opinion the story was covered in sufficient detail for me and in a manner that I greatly appreciated. I recommend this book to those interested in the history of medicine, history in general and to all those who appreciate a well-written non-fiction book.
R**Y
The Unwon Battle of Cinchona Against Malaria
The most devastating disease to humans has undoubtedly been malaria. Fiammetta Rocco is qualified to write about the disease. She has had it herself, and her father had it many times. Her grandparents kept a farm in Africa, and while it can be expected that there were plenty of diseases to bother or kill, malaria was the most prevalent. The story of the battle against malaria has been told many times, but since it combines science, the conquest of nations, and religion, it will always prove inexhaustible. In _The Miraculous Fever-Tree: Malaria and the Quest for a Cure that Changed the World_ (HarperCollins), Rocco has focused on the discovery, utilization, and culture of quinine, the drug that for centuries has brought some hope against the disease. That it has had to work for centuries, of course, means that the battle is far from won.Perhaps the most malarious city in the world was Rome. It was said that the many marshes around the city provided "bad air" (how the disease gets its name), but of course they actually provided breeding grounds for the mosquitoes that spread it. When there was a convocation of cardinals, for the eventual election of Pope Urban VIII in 1623, there was a clash of politics, philosophies, and personalities, but the most worrisome aspect of the meeting was that one cardinal after another sickened and died. At just about that time cinchona bark started coming in. That it was a miracle cure is clear, and part of the wonder was that a constant scourge of Europe had a cure growing in dense forests in the mountains halfway around the world. Jesuit priests in missions in the Andes saw that natives used it to stop the shivers when exposed to dampness and cold, and when it was tried on malaria, not only did it work to ease the shivering, it took away the other symptoms of the disease. It became know as "Jesuit Powder," and Protestants protested against its use; it also seemed to contradict the humoral theory by which medicine was done at the time. Its efficacy meant that it would conquer such prejudices, but Rocco shows how in one world war after another, the medicine was not available to troops who needed it.Malaria is still a killer, one person succumbing about every fifteen seconds. The pharmaceutical industry is generally uninterested in researching and producing medicines for tropical diseases, and the artificial substitutes for quinine have resulted in resistant strains. But surprisingly, the Jesuit Powder has barely sparked any resistance, and it still works. This detailed and fascinating book ends with the optimistic outlook for the company Pharmakina, based in the Congo, which is simply growing cinchona trees, harvesting the quinine, and selling it at affordable prices. Such an operation won't do for the big drug companies, but sensible profits from a reliable product represent good business. This is a reminder that for all the colorful and dramatic history of malaria and our efforts to treat it, the past is not as important as the future.
M**N
Who found the original cure for Malaria?
An engrosding history of the search for a cure to Malaria which ravaged most if the world right into the 19th C.
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